Up to $6 bil. in natural gas found

Prospective resources off Israel's coast could be up to 6 trillion cubic feet.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Bontan gas map (photo credit: Courtesy: Bontan Oil and Gas)
Bontan gas map
(photo credit: Courtesy: Bontan Oil and Gas)
The Canadian Bontan Oil and Gas Company, which has been exploring for natural gas off the coast of Israel, announced Tuesday that it had found prospective resources of up to 6 trillion cubic feet [TCF]of natural gas in Mira and Sarah Prospects off the country's coast.
As defined on the company's Web site, prospective resources are “those quantities of petroleum estimated, as of a given date, to be potentially recoverable from undiscovered accumulations by application of future development projects. “
The two finds could be worth upwards of US $6 billion.
The Canadian company “will have an indirect 71.625% interest in these prospects via its 75% equity interest in the Israel Petroleum Company which has acquired a 95.5% interest in the drilling licenses as well as an adjoining exploration permit from the current operator subject to approval by the Government of Israel,” a press release on its Website announced.
The evaluation report, conducted by Chapman Petroleum Engineeringstated, “Based on our analysis, after consideration of risk, we haveconcluded that the potential of these prospects is of sufficient meritto justify the work program being proposed, and we therefore recommendand support the Company’s participation.”
The top-findestimates are a best-case scenario, with “the best estimate  [for theMira Prospect] of gross prospective sales gas resources at 4.24 TCF andfor the Sarah Prospect, the best estimate of gross prospective salesgas resources is 1.47 TCF.